FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that causes food borne illness).

The FDA advises that if consumers have any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their home that they throw them away. Cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted to ban popular over-the-counter cold products intended for children under the age of 6.

The panel decided that there is no evidence that OTC cough and cold medicines have any effect on younger kids - and that more studies need to be done.

"The data that we have now is they don't seem to work," said Sean Hennessy, one of the FDA experts asked to examine the group of medicines.

Many men want to know if their swimmers can actually swim, but the thought of an embarrassing fertility evaluation at a doctor's office keeps men wondering at home.

A new at-home screening test, called Fertell, lets prospective parents find out if they have fertility problems without stepping into a doctor’s office. The test is the first at-home device to measure the concentration of motile sperm.

In Spring 2007, federal drug regulators started a broad review of the safety of popular cough and cold remedies meant for children.

In higher than normal doses, cold medicines can affect the heart’s electrical system, leading to arrhythmias. Some medicines affect the blood vessels and, in high doses, have been associated with hypertension and stroke. In rare cases, children have been injured even when given recommended doses.